POTATO 



protrudes the tiny green style with its green stigmatic head, sur- 

 rounded by the spreading tips of the anthers. The fragrance of 

 the leaves is marked and characteristic. 



POTATO 



Solatium tuberosum. 



Root. — Produces subterranean stems which bear tubers. 



Stem. — Branching, somewhat decumbent. 



Leo'yej.— Pinnatifid, unequally and interruptedly. 



Flowers. — Borne in loose panicles, white or pink. . 



Calyx. — Five-deft, hairy. 



Corolla. — Rotate, tube short, border with five shallow lobes, more or 

 less gathered or frilled. 



Stamens. — Five, set closely at the throat of the corolla; anthers coming 

 together, making a cone. 



Ovary. — Two-celled; style short; stigma capitate. 

 Fruit. — A berry. 



If the P6tato were not such a common field plant we might 

 sometimes gather its flowers, for in early 

 summer the Potato field is dotted over 

 with clusters of beautiful golden- 

 centred white stars. The story goes 

 that the Potato was rejected with 

 scorn in France, until Louis XV recom- 

 mended it by wearing amidst his court- 

 iers a bouquet of its flowers. 



The economic value of the plant lies 

 in its peculiar habit of developing slen- 

 der white underground stems which 

 gradually swell at the free end and pro- 

 duce the tubers with which we are so 

 familiar. The stem nature of these tu- 

 bers is made evident by the development of eyes or leaf buds. 

 Few plants possess this remarkable power, and the Potato 

 possesses it to the highest degree of any plant known. 



397 



Potato. Solatium luberbsum 



